Good wishes to all of our Floranada families! February
promises to be a busy month here at Floranada. One of the
best ways that you can help your child each day is to make
sure that he/she is at school on time. We begin each day
with our Reading Block and tardy students miss important
time in reading.

We begin our FCAT testing this month with our 4th
Grade students taking the FCAT Writing Assessment on
February 9. It is imperative that students who are taking the
FCAT be in attendance and on time on testing days. This
guarantees that they will be testing with their own teacher in
their own classroom.
Our 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students are actively engaged in
the First in Math program. This is a web-based program
that is designed to build automatically with math facts. The
program is a fun way for kids to build on basic concepts and
learn new challenging skills, as well. With children having
their own user name and password, he/she can work on the
program from school or from home. As positive
motivation, students earn award “stickers” by
accomplishing tasks and mastering skills. The program then
continues to track personal and classroom scores. At the
end of each week, the class in each grade level with the
most stickers will be awarded a trophy. Recognition will
also be given to the top scores for individuals with the most
stickers earned.

The School Board of Broward County, Florida, prohibits any policy or procedure which results in discrimination on the basis of age, color, disability, gender, national
origin, marital status, race, religion, or sexual orientation. Individuals who wish to file a discrimination and/or harassment complaint may call the Director of Equal
Educational Opportunities at (754) 321-2150 or Teletype Machine TTY (754) 321-2158.
Individuals with disabilities requesting accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) may call Equal Educational Opportunities at (754) 321-2150
or Teletype Machine TTY (754) 321-2158.
The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of Floranada Elementary or Broward County Public Schools

ESE Advisory General Meeting
For the younger child, I
would like to recommend
www.pbskids.org. This is a
website filled with activities
related to the educational
programs found on the PBS
network. There are games
used to teach numbers, letters,
patterns, and much more.
There are also coloring pages
and music for children to
enjoy. While I am hesitant to
encourage television viewing,
if your child is going to watch
TV, two incredible shows I
can recommend on PBS that
will provide your child with
skills for reading and science
are Super Why and Sid the
Science Kid. My three year
old loves them and enjoys the
activities on the website as
well.
As always, thank you for all
that you do to help us help
your children to be successful.
We really appreciate it!
Keith Peters,
Principal

Parents are invited to attend the ESE Advisory General
Meeting on February 22, 2010, at 7:00pm.
Piper High School
8000 N.W. 44 Street
Sunrise
For more information or directions to the meetingPlease call (754) 321-2200

Character Education
During the month of February
students, faculty and staff will be
practicing the character trait
"Honesty”. Honesty means being
truthful, trustworthy and sincere. One Super Citizen student will be
selected from each classroom. These students best display the trait
of “Honesty” and will be honored at a special ceremony on
February 23.

Water Conservation Winners!
Congratulations to Sophia Marquard and Siana Rau! These two
students from Ms. Shon’s 2nd grade class recently submitted
poems for a water conservation contest. Sophia was the grand
prize winner and Siana won second place. Winners were
honored January 12 in Commissioner’s Chambers in Fort
Lauderdale. Here are their winning entries.

Water Works Widely

The Water Wise Poem

By Sophia Marquard

By Siana Rau

As water flows around the townWater is happy and not wearing a
frown.

Water, water is everywhere-

Try to save water whatever you doMother Nature will be so proud of
you!

Water, water is fun to playI like to swim in it…all day.

Don’t pollute water whatever you dono water will be running… the fish
will die too!
Save your water and you will be
proudWater- yell “hooray” really loud!!!!!!

You brush your teeth and you
wash your hair.

Water, water is good for meI like to drink it when I’m thirsty!

FCAT Parent Information Night
A special thank you goes out to the faculty who presented at FCAT Parent information night! Thank you
Mrs. Olstein, Mrs. Bub, Mrs. Chelton, Mrs. Rowe, Mrs. Barclay, Mrs. Merriman, and Mr. Burns. In case
you missed the event, here are some things you can do at home with your student as we approach FCAT.

Writing
Florida Writes is a 45-minute timed writing assessment. Students will be
asked to write either a Narrative Story or an Expository Essay. This assessment
is scored on a scale of 0 - 6. A zero is the lowest score and a six is the highest
score. A passing score is a Level 4.
As teachers, our goal is for all students to score a Level 4 or higher. As parents,
we are certain that you too want your child to be as successful as possible.
Below are a few things you can do at home to help your child prepare for the Florida Writes assessment.
*Have your child practice writing Dialogue.
Dialogue is used in both Narrative Stories and Expository Essays. Dialogue is when two or more characters
are speaking to each other.
Example:
“I’m so hungry I could eat four jumbo hot dogs with ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, chili, and cheese,” Mike
stated.
“I would like to see you do that,” Judy said smiling.
-When writing dialogue, your child will need to remember to put quotation marks around spoken words.
-Put all punctuation marks inside the quotation marks.
-Indent each time someone new is speaking. (Only when writing a Narrative Story)
*Have your child practice Showing not Telling.
This means to use descriptions of how things look, feel, taste, sound, and smell.
Example:
Telling Sentence: The small child was hungry.
Showing Sentence: The infant’s face was a cherry red as he thrashed around in his highchair. He was
waiting for the first delicious bite of baby food.
The following are some telling sentences that you can have your child practice showing not telling.
-The cookies tasted good.

The flower smelled good.

-The new bike looked nice.

School lunches are gross.

-I found a pretty shell.

The video game was fun.

-My teacher is great.

My brother/sister bugs me.

When students practice writing at home, they need to be remember to use appropriate conventions such as;
periods, question marks, and exclamation marks.

Reading
It happens all of the time, to the best of us! Even really accomplished readers suffer from this same
problem at times. That is because our eyes can float over words, and our brains automatically decode the
words, yet we are not truly reading because we are not making any meaning from the words. In order to say
we have sincerely read something, we have to have derived meaning from, it. Otherwise, the glossy-eyed
“reading” is simply referred to as decoding, and not reading. In other words, when we read, it has to make
sense, otherwise we’re not really reading.
Unlike passive activities such as playing video games or watching TV, reading is an active process in our
brains. Strategic readers address their thinking in an inner conversation that helps them make sense of what
they read. Help to foster these inner (and outer) conversations with your children by discussing their texts
with them. Readers take the written word and construct meaning based on their own thoughts, knowledge,
and experiences. Help your child to make explicit, personal connections to the text they are reading. Provide
structure for your child to think when they read. Children must develop an awareness of their own thinking,
so that they can monitor themselves while they read.
Here are some questions to guide your conversation about narrative text:
Remember
•

Who are the main characters?

•

When did the story take place? (setting)

•

Where did the story take place? (setting)

Understand
•

What is the main idea of the story?
What are the major events in the story?